Thanks Matt @ Run-Fore!-Kellogg's 1977 Sumo Sportscasters

A huge thanks to Matt over at the Run-Fore!-Kellogg's Baseball Cards and Run-Fore!-Sportscaster Cards.  He sent me out of the blue two extremely rare and hard-to-find 1977 Sumo Sportscaster Cards: the German-language and Italian-language cards.  These are so cool and I never thought I would own one of them given how hard these "obscure" language ones are to find.  I am amazed at the language variety of these cards and how far reaching these were collected around the world. The sumo cards checklist is now at 9 (see below) with the ones in bold the ones I have in my collection.

Thanks again Matt and much appreciated!

03-08 Printed in Italy - Blank Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - A Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy - B Series (English Language)

03-08 Printed in Italy (German Language)

03-08 Printed in Japan (English Language)

03-56 Printed in Belgium (Dutch Language)

03-56 Printed in Italy (French Language)

03-56 Printed in Finland (Finnish Language)

833-12 Printed in Italy (Italian Language)

German Flea Market Finds #5: Tobacco Cards!

Flea market season is getting back into full swing here in Germany and I picked up a whole slew of 1930s German tobacco cards last week.  There are some fun ones in this flea market find.  I picked up some more of the 1933 Gold Film Bilder Set (20913-5/6).  These are quite easy to find, but have some great early cards of film actresses and actors.  Some of the interesting ones in this set are Norma Shearer (1930 winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress), Lita Grey Chaplin (2nd wife of Charlie Chaplin) and Greta Garbo (Three-time nominee for the Academy Award Best Actress).

I was also able to pick up these 1933 Lloyd Flottenbilder die Welthandelsflotte (20247-4) (Translated as "Ship Cards of the World's Fleets").  Did you know the Titanic had two sister ships: Olympic and Britannic?  Here is the Britannic (top left) in all her glory before she was sunk in World War 1 by the Germans.  The Germans were forced to compensate England for the lose after the war ended and did so with the Majestic (top right) which was the largest ship in the world at the time she was launched.

The last ones I'll show today are from the 1933 Lloyd Reedereiflaggen die Welthandelsflotte (20247-5) (Translated as "Company Flags of the World's Fleets").  I pulled out a couple of the US Flags. In the upper left is the Matson Navigation Company out of San Francisco that is still in business today.  You are probably more familiar with their current logo. The upper right is the Goodrich Transit Company out of Chicago that operated a fleet of ships in Lake Michigan, but went bankrupt in 1933...right after these cards were printed.

German Flea Market Finds #3: Card Goodness

Flea market season is in full swing over here in Germany.  Dozens are happening every weekend so picking and choosing the right ones isn't as hard....if you hit a dud, just move onto the next one.  I try to look around to see what people are buying, but it truly is a random assortment of stuff.  Fortunately, it seems I am the only one in Southern Germany that is collecting cards so that is a positive thing that keeps me going out as often as possible.  Here are some of the highlights of one of the local markets:

I picked up this full album of 1937 Cigaretten-Bilderdenst-Hamburg cards of trees and flowers called "Aus Wald und Flur" (Trees and Flowers) for 8 Euro.  Its catalog number is 21806-17.  As is German tradition, the cards are pasted in the album.   This tobacco card series seemed really popular back in the day due to the amount of them I see these days for sale.  They are also all over German eBay so I feel like I got a pretty good deal.

World Cup fever was in full swing here until Germany lost last week.  Boo, but at least the biergartens are now a lot less crowded.  A local store, Rewe, hands out these cards for every 10-Euro purchase.  They have done this now for at least 3 World Cups.  The cashier took pity on me when I asked if I could have one and he gave me a whole stack of unopened packs.  The cards above, however, came from a seller at the flea market.  He had hundreds of them and I was able to complete an entire 36-card set for 10 Euro and keep my unopened packs sealed.

The WWF (no, not the wrestling brand), World Wildlife Fund, teamed up with the local grocery store, Edeka, to issue these 4-sticker packs with a purchase of groceries.  As you can imagine, each of the stickers contains an image of an animal, or part of an animal for larger, multi-sticker images.  There are 180-stickers in the set and once you tear off the borders of the pack, it reveals 4 stickers that are perforated.  A seller at the flea-market had a whole stack of them and was happy to unload them all for 2 Euro.


More to follow next week.

1933 German Salem Gold Film Bilder Album and Cards

The flea market scene here in Germany is pretty legit.  There seem to be dozens around every community each weekend and even in the rain, the vendors are out braving the elements trying to make a Euro or two.  I stumbled upon these two albums and was able to snag them at a decent price.  I've seen them before, but have never been able to find ones that appealed to me.  These 1933 albums and cards were printed by the Salem Cigarette Company out of Dresden Germany.  The catalog numbers for Album #1 and #2 are 21903-5 and 21903-6, respectively.  The cards are amazingly beautiful with the gold ink and you can see how it reflects in the photos below.  There are some big names in these sets as well: Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, and John Barrymore to name a few.  Album #1 has 180 cards in it while Album #2 has 270.  I was looking online for a checklist, but wasn't able to find one so I'll post one to the Trading Card Database for Series 1 and Series 2.  Thanks for stopping by.

Germany's Annual Trading Card Show

I went to Germany's Annual Trading Card Show near Frankfurt a few weeks ago to scope out the German card-collecting scene.  Before anyone runs out and buys their tickets for next year, read on.  I was able to hook up with a prominent Germany collector (Nick Bolton) who speaks English and was able to get a better understanding of the current state.  First, vintage card collecting is a dying hobby in Germany.  He said I was the first new collector he had met all day and that he knew every single person in the room until I came along.  New collectors are not coming to the hobby at all.  Consequently, the show was very small compared to American standards.  In fact, all the dealers (about 15 in total) fit inside the small auditorium with room to spare.  Local shows in America would be much bigger.  Second, the internet has killed any sort of in-person show.  With the vast amounts of trade and cigarette cards, going to shows to eek out a profit isn't worth it for the collector's anymore.  Most early cards in Germany were produced by the hundreds of thousands....so they can be had for less than a dollar these days and since no one is really collecting, shows have died.  Lastly, in my opinion, there is a lack of printed checklists for all the sets out there.  So I imagine new people have a hard time getting started in collecting, because it is difficult to focus.  There are several books out there, but they unfortunately don't dive down into individual cards.  It would be like having a card catalog that lists the 1952 Topps set as having 407 cards in it, but no individual names.  It is a different way to collect than in America and so it makes foreigners who want to start difficult too...let alone the language.

I am the worst at taking photos so no actual photos of the venue itself and the internet has failed me on digging any up.  It was small so pictures wouldn't have added to it at all.  Unfortunately, the show was only from 10:00 to 3:00 so I couldn't dig through all the bins like I wanted to.  There were tens of thousands of singles I could have spend half a day digging through.  I just ran out of time.  Everyone was extremely nice and I got by with my English decently.  Besides...money talks so when I found stuff to buy, we made it all work out.  I could have spent 100x as much as I did and really jumped into German card collecting.  Hopefully by next year I'll be much smarter and can focus on some interesting sets.

I ended up buying Nick Bolton's book that does an amazing job of capturing pre-WW1 card sets.  Nick is a Brit that lives in Germany.  He was an amazing source of info.

Nick also hooked me up with this amazing Riquet set called Tee in China.  It is a 12-card set printed on rice paper with amazing and vivid printing.  I was sold as soon as I saw it.

I was able to buy the Abraham Lincoln card from another dealer.  This is from the Bensdorp Cocoa "Famous Men" set which has 104 cards in it.  Card # 62 has the famous Honest Abe.

Here is boxer Max Baer and swimmer Johnny Weissmuller from the Bravour-Bilder Set.

I haven't been able to catalog this boxer from this 1937 Siegel set.

Lastly, I picked up these 4 interesting cards from the 1935 Olleschau Lesezeichen Set: Sigmund Freud, Walt Whitman, Isaak Newton, and Mark Twain.

First Good Year Blimp Trading Card - 1932 German Garbaty "Die Eroberung Der Lift" Set

The German card market has a wealth of cards that seem fairly undiscovered on the other side of the Atlantic.  This set is one of them in the fact that it contains the earliest known Good Year Blimp Card...the "Pilgrim."  While the Pilgrim wasn't the first blimp built by Good Year, it was the first to have the words Good Year printed on the side.  This 1932 German "Die Eroberung Der Lift" (The Conquest of the Air) set was the first to capture the iconic Good Year Blimp image on a card.  In fact, the only other cards I can find of the early Good Year blimps are postcards.  This set was made to collect and paste into an album which was typical of the German tobacco sets of this era.  Surprisingly, this small lot of cards I won at auction survived this pasting fate.  Köberich catalogues this set as the 20703-5 and it chronicles the history of human flight over 234 cards from mechanical wings on humans to passenger aircraft and blimps.  Each card measures approximately 2 7/17" x 1 9/16".

Astronaut Neil Armstrong's "Rookie Card" - 1967 Heinerle Card

During a trip to a local vintage toy and model train store here in Germany, I picked up this partial set of 1967 German Kampf Um Den Weltraum (The Struggle for the Universe).  This set was made by Heinerle out of Bamberg, Germany.  The set walks the collector through the development of rockets and the NASA space program up through 1967.  Pictures are mostly of rockets, engineers, and cool space related images (I'm a space geek and I picked up some other German space sets as well that I'll highlight here in the near future.)

Koberich lists the catalog number of this set as the 30825-25 made in 1967 with a total of 190 cards in the set.  This set also as an English-language parallel set that is identical on the front except that the writing on the back is in English....and you can definitely tell it was not translated by an American.  Koberich doesn't mention this fact of an English language version so I am going to get a hold of him and ask if he knows anything more about it.

What is really unique about this set, though, is that it contains a trading card of Neil Armstrong....card #185.  It shows him with David Scott in their Gemini 8 spacesuits together in front of a satellite dish.  Interesting fact is the image is reversed on the card front so this is also an uncorrected error...maybe they corrected it later, which would make it that much cooler.  I did an internet search and could only find his 1969 Topps Man on the Moon card as being the earliest trading card known up to this point.  Anyone know of an earlier card of Armstrong?

There are some other great cards of other astronauts including Alan Sheppard, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee...not to mention the famous Werhner Von Braun on Card #35.  I only picked up a partial set so the full set likely has other cards of other famous astronauts.

Cards measure approximately 2 3/4" x 3 3/4"

German Flea Market Finds #2: Some Non-Sport Goodness

It has taken a little while to adjust German life, but it has been the most difficult having my new sumo card supply dwindle while we make the transition.  I have been filling some of my time, though, browsing German Flea Markets.  I hit up another one this morning and came away with a nice haul of some non-sport cards. The language barrier doesn't seem to be a problem as long as you bring money.  That is almost the universal language, but I am sure I could have snagged these for a few less Euro than what I paid.  All in all, I walked away with these 24 cards for about $11 or 10E.

Some German Beauties!
*Sets:
-Koberich 21146-16, Frauen-Schonheit und Anmut (Set of 20)
-Koberich 21146-17, Frauen-Schonheit und Anmut (Set of 20)
*Size :6.5" x 8.5"

--Schonheit in Film (Gruppe/Group 1, Bild/Card 13) - Carola Hohn
--Schonheit in Film (Gruppe/Group 1, Bild/Card 16) - Hansi Knoteck
--Anmut im Tanz (Gruppe/Group 2, Bild/Card 12) - Ursula Deinert
--Anmut im Tanz (Gruppe/Group 2, Bild/Card 13) - Friedl Romanowsky
--Anmut im Tanz (Gruppe/Group 2, Bild/Card 17) -Annemarie Herrmann


A walk back in time with the Egyptians (Aus der Pharaonenzeit)

*Set: Uncatalogued Aecht Franck Coffee (Set of 6?)
*Size: 2.75" x 4.25"

--1. Am Hofe eines altagyptischen Herrschers
--2. Jagd auf Wasservogel am Ufer des Nils
--3. Aegypterinnen beim Ballspiel auf einem Dachgarten im alten Theben
--4. Vornehmer Aegypter beim Sklavenhandler
--5. Pharao verfolg den Bau einer Pyramide
--6. Transport des Materials zum Pyramidenbau durch die Wuste


Famous armies of the world set (Beruhente Regimenter)

*Set: Uncatalogued (Set of 6?)
*Size: 4.5" x 2.75"

--1. Preussen (Prussia)
--2. Frankreich (France)
--3. Osterreich (Austria)
--4. England
--5. Russland (Russia)
--6. Ilalien


Some Pearls of the German Landscape (Perlen deutscher Landschaft)
*Set: Uncatalogued Aecht Franck Coffee (Set of 6?)
*Size: 4.25" x 2.75"

--Bild 7. Auf Rugen
--Bild 8. Die Sachsische Schweiz


I love me some lithographic moth cards!

*Set: Uncatalogued Kornfranck Moth (Set of 8?)
*Size: 4.0" x 2 5/8"

--Bild 2. Die Ronne
--Bild 3. Schwammfpinner
--Bild 5. Ringelfpinner


Animals!
*Set: Uncatalogued Stollwerck Chocolade (Set of hundreds)
*Size: 3 5/8" x 1 7/8"

--Gruppe 270, Bild V - Der Igel (Hedgehog)
--Gruppe 276, Bild IV - Das Opossum

German Advertising and Collectible Cards - Koberich's Catalogs

Since moving to Germany, I've had a lull in importing Japanese sumo cards so I have been keeping myself occupied with German cards.  Hopefully, everyone will find some interest in these as they are quite a fascinating piece of collecting.  Doing research, I quickly found that Angelika Koberich is the king cataloging German cards.  He also runs an antique book shop up in Rabenau Germany and has an online presence here.  I reached out to Mr. Koberich directly about ordering two of his books and he responded very quickly.  He even sent them to me with a bill enclosed so wasn't expecting payment up front.  I think that is common here in German and a nice bit of customer service.  The two books I ordered were his German Advertising and Collectable Cards from 1872-1945 (Volume 1) and 1946-2001 (Volume 2).  Having just published my Sumo Menko and Card Checklist, I am always fond of other card catalogers.  These books are simply amazing.  Each is hardcover and about 275 pages each.  Even with extremely basic German-language skills I was able to decipher on how to use them.  Although there are no pictures of cards in the sets, the catalog in both books is presented nicely (see picture) to find what set the cards belong to.  Each set has 1) Year produced, 2) Catalog Number and Sequence Number, 3) Title, 4) Number of Cards in Set, and 5) Price. There is a nice index in the back that you can find your set and then go search it in the actual catalog to find all the details.

My real interest in these is that they catalog the German tobacco cards quite nicely.  These cards were originally issued with packs of cigarettes.  Eventually, coupons were added to the packs instead of the actual cards and they the buyer could then redeem so many coupons for packets of cards (issued in groups called Gruppe to stick in albums.  It seems about 5-10 packets of cards would complete 200-300 card sets so each Gruppe packet held about 20-30 cards.  It is more common than not to find albums with all the cards glued into the albums.  Here is an example I pulled from the internet:

This particular set is the Deutsche Volkstrachten which appears to be cards of people from all over Germany.  According to Koberich, this set was made in 1933 by Eckstein, a cigarette manufacturer out of Dresden.  The catalog number is #20502-12...this was the 12th set they produced and it has 198 cards.  Pretty cool.

Once I hit up some more flea markets, I'll post my finds.  Cheers and I hope everyone enjoys there weekend!

German Flea Market Find #1: Olympic Cards

Welcome from Germany....land of lots of beer, nice cars, and a great culture!  I managed to make it out and about this past weekend to one of the local German flea markets and found these German Olympic cards....I have no idea what sets they are from, but thought they were cool for 2€.  I imagine I overpaid a bit, but since they were my first cards, I was pretty excited to get them.  The color ones appear to be all German athletes, while the black and white set has a mix of different countries and sports.  They are standard trading card size and all show a decent amount of wear.  Hopefully I will find more of them and can update everyone on what they actually are.  More to follow....